[Fixed] My iPhone Says I Have No Storage but I Deleted Everything

If you encounter "My iPhone says I have no storage, but I deleted everything", follow this guide to learn what caused the problem and how to fix it.

Dylan

By Dylan / Updated on March 5, 2024

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“I’ve deleted literally everything on my iPhone and still it says my storage is full. What do I do ?”

 

"My iphone 7 says I have no storage but I deleted everything, I only have several pictures and less than 10 applications installed on my 64 GB iPhone. I can’t take any new pictures or record new videos."

 

“My iPhone 5 says iPhone storage full after deleting photos, videos, games and other large documents.”

- Some questions from Quora

We love to keep photos, videos and many important memories on our devices, but iPhone storage is limited, and the capacity can't keep up. In this case, deleting something is one way to free up space. However, you may find that there is no storage space even after deleting everything.

It's really annoying and frustrating, especially if you've done everything possible to fix the problem. Today, we are going to tackle a series of questions like ”My iPhone says I have no storage but I deleted everything”.

iphone storage full 400x223

Why is iPhone storage full after deleting everything or some files?

Why is my iPhone storage full even after deleting? In fact, on an iPhone, even if you have 64 GB of internal storage, not all of it is available. The internal space of the iPhone is partitioned by default to store firmware, system files and personal data files (internal data + application data).

Here are some possible reasons behind this:

Cache data: The applications you’ve already downloaded on your phone will typically not use a lot of storage, but the app data does! Cached data is the culprit of low storage issues.
Old iCloud backup: If you have iCloud backup turned on and iCloud storage is full, you will see the iPhone storage full message on your phone, even if there is nothing on your local iPhone or you deleted some large files just now.
Update: System updates increase storage consumption, which is one reason you have a limited number of apps installed on your phone.
Some glitches or bugs: There may be a bug or an error that causes the “no storage on iPhone but deleted everything” issue.

How to fix "My iPhone says have no storage but deleted everything"

In this part of the article, we'll list the solutions you can try to find an answer to this problem.

🔁 Delete  iPhone backups If you backup your iPhone several time, there may be some redundant backups on your device. Remove them from your iPhone to release storage.
💿 Disable Photo Library Turn off your iCloud Photo Library to avoid photos on other devices synced to your iPhone.
📂 Clear cache data iPhone cache can take up a large proportion of your storage. Clear them to free up storage space.
⚙ Erase content & settings If the above solutions can't work out, just erase everything and reset your iPhone. 
📱 Restart your iPhone If your iPhone storage is still full after deleting some data, you can restart your device.

🏆  Release space without losing data

If your iPhone storage is full and don't want to lose data. Before deleting, you can backup your iPhone to PC with FoneTool.

⚡⚡⚡ Quick Video Tutorial: My iPhone Says I Have No Storage but I Deleted Everything

Solution 1. Delete old iPhone backup

One of the basic fixes you can try is to delete old iPhone backups. iCloud has 5 GB of free backup storage, and if you are connected to a stable internet connection and have enough iCloud backup storage, iCloud will automatically back up your files for you.

This means that if your iCloud doesn't have enough storage, you'll get an error message or notification saying "Not enough storage on your iPhone." The best way to do is to avoid getting such notifications by deleting your iPhone backup.

Go to Settings on your iPhone > tap [Your Name] > iCloud > click Manage Storage > tap Backups > choose your iPhone > tap Delete Backup.

check icloud backup size

Solution 2. Disable the Photo Library service

In fact, deleting photos is the one way to release your iPhone storage. But you may find iPhone storage full after deleting photos. If you have multiple iOS devices, you may have saved photos to iCloud on other devices, such as an iPad.

To stop receiving photos from other devices, you need to disable the Photo Library service to stop syncing photos between iPhone and iPad to fix this problem.

Go to iPhone Settings > [your profile] > iCloud > click Photos to turn off iCloud Photos and then photos would be completely removed from your device and also kept on your other devices.

icloud photos

Note: If you choose to use this method, and you have iOS 14 on your device, keep in mind that even if you delete photos on your device, it doesn't mean they are gone on your device. This could explain why you're still getting a notification that your device doesn't have enough space, even though you've deleted all photos from your iPhone.
You must manually delete the files to ensure cleanup. You need to go to Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted to make it.

Solution 3. Clear cache data on your iPhone

It may be that your iPhone has accumulated cache files over a period of time, and these caches are now too large for your iPhone to handle. In this case, what you can do is to clear the cache files on the iPhone to free up memory space.

>>Clear out the Safari cache

Note: Clearing the cache on Safari will log you out of all websites you are currently logged into.

Open the Settings app > scroll down to Safari > tap Clear History and Website Data.

clear history and website data

>>Clear out useless app data on iPhone

Like Safari, your app can grab a lot of useless data that you don't need. Here's how to get rid of useless files stored in apps:

1. Go to Settings > General > tap iPhone Storage.

2. The screen will show the apps that take up the most storage at the top. Tap on one of the apps, click Delete App.

offload app delete app

If the application's Documents and Data entry shows that the application occupies more than 500 MB, we recommend uninstalling and reinstalling the application.

Solution 4. Erase All Content and Settings 

If the above solutions didn't work for you, you may need to try resetting all settings on your iPhone. Doing so will restore all settings to their factory state, and you can start over.

Open the Settings app > head to General > Reset > tap on Erase All Content and Settings.

reset network setting

Follow the instructions displayed on the screen, and you will successfully reset all settings to their default values.

Solution 5. Restart your iPhone

If after all these changes, your iPhone storage is still out of space, it's time to restart your device. Sometimes, if the iPhone is overloaded, it can't perform new tasks or apply new settings. To fix this, you need to uninstall the device through the restart process.

Press and hold the power button for a few seconds, then slide the logo to power off. Wait a few seconds, restart your iPhone and to check the iPhone storage.

How do I free up space on my iPhone without deleting everything

Above are the solutions to "my iPhone says I have no storage but I deleted everything", after trying all methods, hope you can fix this problem.

In addition, if you wanto free up iPhone storage but don't want to lose everything. You can make a backup and then delete your data. The purpose of backing up iPhone to a Windows computer is to protect data from direct deletion.

So, you can use FoneTool, the top one and free iOS data transfer software that allows you to back up iPhone data to PC, transfer data from iPhone to iPhone and manage iOS data on computer.

It supports the latest iPhone 14/14 Pro (Max)/14 Pro Max/13/SE 2022/iPad 8/Air 5, iOS 16/15/14, etc., and is perfectly compatible with iOS 16/15/14.

Step 1. Click the button below to download the installation package. Install it on your computer.

Download FreewareWin 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 2. Open this tool, Click Phone Backup on the home screen. Choose Selective Backup.

custom backup

Note: If you want to back up all data, you can click Full Backup icon to make it, which includes apps (data files, preference), Safari (history, bookmarks). system settings, as well as some common data like photos, contacts, text messages, music, video, etc.)

Step 3. Click the icon to choose the items you want to back up, tap OK.

select files

Step 4. Choose a storage to save the data, then click Start Backup.

backup

In addition, its Erase iPhone feature can help you clean your phone thoroughly to free up space when you need it. And you won't lose any files after following the above steps to back up your iPhone to computer.

Conclusion

Deleting everything from the iPhone will give you more free space, but sometimes it doesn't solve your problem. If you're still having the "My iPhone says I have no storage but I deleted everything" issue, you can use the solutions in this guide to fix it.

Also, you can use the best way to free up iPhone storage space-try FoneTool to transfer iPhone data to computer and then delete them safely from iPhone.